Afghan Families, American Sons

The Times has a piece, with a helpful chart, on the web of Karzai-family patronage in Afghanistan. It’s not just Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother who is alleged to be involved in narcotics trafficking and all sorts of graft, and to take money from the C.I.A.; or Mahmoud Karzai, whose businesses have prospered in a dubious manner and who was caught up in the Kabul Bank scandal. (They both deny wrongdoing.) All sorts of cousins and nephews are making money, too, many with vague governmental jobs and advisory positions. According to the Times, there’s too much Karzai-profiteering even for some Karzais:

“The Karzais are over there in Afghanistan cashing in on their last name,” said Mohammad Karzai, a cousin of President Karzai who lives in Maryland. “My relatives have told me they can’t understand why I don’t come over with them and get rich.”

How rich? Hard to say, “but some appear to have significantly improved their circumstances,” according to the Times. And the family’s multifaceted interests make one wonder what the Karzai’s government’s priorities are in any negotiations with the Taliban. (The Washington Post has a new report on high-level talks.) Many of the Karzais are also keeping homes in other countries, perhaps in case they have to leave Afghanistan in a hurry. For example:

Hashim Karzai, a cousin of President Karzai, now works as a consultant to Pamir Airways, an airline based in Kabul that has been controlled by one of Mahmoud Karzai’s business partners, and lives in Dubai on one of the luxurious Palm Islands. In August, he rented the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, one block from the White House, for his son’s wedding to a niece of President Karzai, according to Qayum Karzai, the bride’s father and the president’s brother.

A wedding at the Corcoran—perhaps that means that some of the tax dollars we have poured into Afghanistan are benefiting a cultural institution in this country. It’s not clear what else we’re getting for the money.

The Karzais are not the only Afghan family transformed by our presence. In another piece, the Timestracked down relatives of the three Afghan civilians whom American soldiers allegedly killed for sport, in a case that is headed for multiple court martials. (The reporters contacted the families through an “emissary,” and spoke with them by cell phone, because of the security situation.) A woman named Mora Dad described how she was having tea with her husband when two American soldiers came and grabbed him; a minute later she heard shooting and then “I saw my husband, my husband was burning.” It is not any less devastating because her wedding, one guesses, was not at the Corcoran, or any place like that.

The family of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, the alleged ringleader, wouldn’t talk to the paper; his parents wouldn’t comment, and “a sister began to cry when she was asked about him and said her brother had requested that she not speak to reporters.” Some of his friends back home in Montana said that, knowing him, they “did not believe the charges,” according to the Times. (“Not Calvin.”) They might ask the same question a military investigator on the case did in his notes, before writing, “Need to determine if there was any suspicious incidents or investigations during all deployments”:

How many deployments has SSG Gibbs had?

He may have had too many; so have many soldiers who’ve broken no rules at all, and deserve to be back at home, with their own families.

Amy Davidson is a New Yorker staff writer. She is a regular Comment contributor for the magazine and writes a Web column, in which she covers war, sports, and everything in between.